Rayus contacted me immediately last night, upon seeing my post- meaning they probably were watching it close. They wanted to know the battery type, and that they’d resolve it in the next batch. They also asked for suggestions so I let them know a few things. They sound committed to resolving any issues and making a great product. Good to know you brought it up with them. I literally purchased a 10440 for this light after seeing that they said you could use one. Unfortunately it arrived a few days after my initial review so it couldn’t be included in the video. So now I have a 10440 and nothing to use it in.
Nice review, very entertaining
mhanlen,
Just make your own Button Top with glob of solder on the top of the Efest 10440.
Easy Peezy, El Worko.
I’ll try that this weekend, and see how it works. Thanks for the tip!
Great review , thanks for sharing !
Nice review!
Buy more chicken ...I mean lights
I have been looking for a AAA keychain light with a nichia for a long time. The only three I’ve ever seen were a kickstarter, preon and the L08. All three have their problems, either the features/modes are wrong or the price isn’t right.
I’ll definitely be looking into this more. Thanks for the info.
It’s the one in the middle, of the beamshot lineup in the OP?
Yep, it’s the middle one. Also see this thread. There’s debate if the emitter is actually high-CRI. It’s definitely a Neutral white Nichia 219, but it may not be as high CRI as claimed. As far as I can tell though, it’s a very pleasing Neutral White. As you can clearly see in the video too.
A final correction. It seems that it’s agreed upon by several minds that this LED is a Nichia 219 5000k 83+ CRI LED and not the originally advertised 92+ CRI 4500k Nichia 219. It’s still a high CRI light, and it looks wonderful to my eye. Rayus wanted me to pass this information along.
Nice review!!! It was very informative yet very fun!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Don’t know how I missed this. Nice review!
Always enjoy your vids…and they are getting better and better.
Can you share your set-up? Things like microphone used…video software…camera…mixing board etc.
Thanks
Always down for gear talk. Mind you, I have some old pro AV gear that could get pricy if you purchase it. That said, until my latest video (the Lumintop one) all of my HD videos were shot on an iPhone 5s. I know, surprise! The key to shooting with an iPhone is locking your focus and exposure before you record. It’s as simple as pressing an holding the screen where you want the focus to be. If you want a certain exposure you need to press and hold where you think you want the brightest part of your scene to be…. you might need to experiment with to get the look you’re going for. I’m sure android phones also have an exposure and focus lock too, if thats what you use. If the camera gets brighter and darker during a shot, it doesn’t look professional.
I try to treat most of what I video as still frames. The less movement the better and I shoot in 1080p- which almost all modern cameras on phones (or any cameras) use.
Up until recently I had to borrow an old still camera, but I just did all my beamshots set to manual on an SLR. Sometimes you can even get an iphone to lock settings on stills if you do the AE/focus lock.
For the Lumintop video I used a Black Magic Pocket Cinema camera and adapted it to some old SLR lenses I had from the film days. I also used a Panasonic GH3 for a few shots. These cameras can be expensive- and I bought them to get some freelance work- but you can get away with less. I bought both on sale- the Black Magic was $500 and the GH3 was $700, the added bonus is they both have the same lens mount.
The video editing part- I use a Mac and Final Cut Pro 7- which is kind of outdated but it works great- I use it at work too. If you’re on windows most pros and amateurs use Adobe Premiere- which I don’t use much- mainly because I’ve been using Final Cut Pro since 2000- the software hasn’t changed much.
As far as audio. I used to just use my iMacs built in Mic- which doesn’t sound great, but since then I’ve picked up an old shure phantom powered mic, and a mackie mixing board that they were throwing out at work. While it’s certainly overkill, it sounds pretty good. That said- you can pick up a cheap audio technica wired lavalier mic for under $50 on Amazon. But honestly I’d use an XLR based mic like a shure SM58.
Here’s the mic I currently use. Again I got it for free.
Here’s the mixing board I use which I got for free. We had a few at work and they constantly had problems, but it works well for me. The best part is that it has a USB out.
Anyway my workflow is.
1. Come up with an idea about what you want to say about a light. Write a page or so of a script. Go through it a time or two and clean it up, and add a few bad jokes.
2. Shoot a few things that you talk about in the script.
3. Bring the videos into your computer.
4. Record your script, and edit out a ton of mistakes.
5. Start lining up the video with the voiceover.
6. Shoot additional stuff for coverage
7. Edit it, and watch it a few times to correct audio and whatever.
Anwyay hope this helps. The sky can be the limit on the budget, but you can pretty much do it with what you have lying around, provided you’re proficient with it. I do sound and video professionally, so it helps to have that foundation. But it’s really all about the editing. You need to keep it moving and keep it interesting. I do it with jokes and a lot of different camera shots. Oh and get a tripod. If it’s a crappy one that doesn’t have fluid movements, just stick to static shots. You can get tripods for smartphones too. And always shoot your phone sideways (landscape or horizontal), there’s nothing more unprofessional than holding the phone the wrong way.
Intriguing info there. Now I am interested in what you do for a living. :quest:
I graduated with an RTV/Comm. degree, but never did much with it…other than being the sound guy at church…lol
Are there basic programs that are useful for editing videos…like the one on windows…moviemaker…or something like that.
Thanks for the detailed info!
I use professional software- which isn’t difficult to learn. If you can figure out photoshop you can probably figure out pro editing software. Of course this software can be expensive. What I recommend is:
Windows:
Adobe Premiere
Apple:
iMovie (free on macs)
Final Cut Pro 7 or earlier.
And if you know any church people still, you might be able to try out this software from someone you know. We had Final Cut Pro at work, so that’s what I use. If you have access to a Mac, Final Cut Pro is an all in one solution. So is premiere but I haven’t used it much. That said Premiere is probably the most used editing software today because it runs on mac and PC… wedding videos, commercials, movies can all be edited on this software (and Final Cut Pro too).